Action Plan - Objectives

I. The issue of interest;
Teachers in Lebanon in both public and private schools are reluctant to open and carry out discussions regarding sexual health education with their students.

II. Causes and solutions;

Underlying factors/causes	Possible solutions
Sex is a very sensitive taboo. Those who do attempt to address associated issues can be easily stigmatized	Work to alleviate this stigma and open dialogue to talk about sexual health and how it can be incorporated into the education system
No support for sexual health educational programs in the academic curricula	Advocate for and present the need for a curricula that is sensitive to sexual health education
Sexual health education is not in the job description of the teachers	· Increase the teachers’ awareness about the importance of addressing such issues with their students · Advocate the administration of the educational institutions to incorporate sexual health education as a role to be performed by the teachers (or some designated ones)
The belief that sexual health education is an issue that needs to be tackled by the parents and not the educational staff	Incorporate the parents and relay the point of view between the teachers and the administration of the educational institutions with that of them.

III. Ultimate Goal; Teachers are ready and enabled to talk positively about sexual health topics with their students.

IV. Strategy;
Teachers belief that talking about sexual health is something that should be tackled by the parents. Hence, they are reluctant to do so where their role is not clearly defined. In that sense, the viewpoints of the parents and the teachers needs to be brought together in order to show that parents are ready to hold that responsibility to the educational system. A recent study by the Ministry of Social Affairs explored this very issue and provided insight on how such responsibility is diffused between the parents and the teachers.
Thus, the intervention will aim to redefine such responsibility and enable the teachers to better address their role as educators.

V. Readiness for change;
The issue of sexual health education has been the center focus of many parties and a debate among them for quite some time now in Lebanon. The efforts have allowed the introduction of certain reproductive health education. But the academic curricula still doesn’t tackle sexual health education and doesn’t adopt the proper language to allow for issues of reproductive health education to be used to tackle sexual health.
As for the norms and values of the community, they are still very hard to change. They stem from conservative and religious backgrounds that in that sense it would better to initiate the intervention in institutions that do not adhere fully to such backgrounds.
Still, the issue does have quite some popularity in mainstream NGOs advocacy plans. A network that brings together these different players might allow a better allocation of efforts to tackle this issue.

VI. Targets;

The action aims to change the knowledge, behavior and opinions of parents and teachers. Hence, it will target media outlets, parents and teachers. It will also aim to change practices in educational institutions by targeting the proper administration such as the schools’ principles.

VII. The Ask;

a. Teachers should be equipped with the skills needed to open discussions concerning sexual health topics. They should be expected to carry out periodical sessions on these issues in their designated institutions

b. Sexual health is an integral part to address when dealing with equipping youth to take better and informed choices concerning their health.

c. The scope of the responsibility is vague when it comes to who should tackle sexual health education; is it the responsibility of the teachers or the parents?! Such responsibility needs to be clearly defined.

d. The action requires awareness-raising, capacity building and change at the level of the practices of the educational institutions. Therefore, training and associated funding is required.

VIII. Goal and objectives (SMART);

a. Goal;
Collaborating with a selected educational institution(s), a guideline booklet will be developed. The booklet will address teachers on the principles of sexual health education. The booklet will be developed in a six month period.

b. Objectives;

i. Identify an education institution(s) that will foster the activity.

ii. Carry out two focus groups, one targeting parents and the other teachers to define the perspective of each.

iii. Carry out a discussion focus group (DFG) to bring together the perspectives of the parents and the teachers.

iv. Define the action from the collected data by developing the guideline booklet

v. Carry out the training workshop based on the booklet to re-evaluate it

IX. Brief SWOT Analysis;

a. Strengths;

i. The action is self-limited to a specific output and timeframe

ii. It is a pilot activity and hence can carried out on a small scale

iii. Being such a pilot activity, it doesn’t require extensive funding

b. Weaknesses;

i. The issue is highly tabooed and stigmatized

ii. Sexual health is confused with reproductive health and hence the true intentions might be seen as redundant

iii. Sexual health education has never been implemented before

c. Opportunities;

i. Possible support from various NGOs, the media, academic institutions and some governmental institutions as well

d. Threats;

i. No support from conservative and faith-based institutions